No big things happening. We are still employed doing projects like servicing our crew overboard light, Cleaning the BBQ and many others items. Still have to get up the mast replacing the anchor light but it has been blowing almost every day so makes it a lot harder to work on deck.

Started chasing rust as we had a few breakout spots as well as the scratches from the Mexican fish boat incident. As it is scratch to the steel this involves first grinding it all to clear steel and exploring the edges til clean steel. Than a couple layers of primers and than 3 layers of intermediate primers. Than fairing compound and finishing primers. This all with sanding in between making a great mess. Finally under coater and finish polyurethane. Too much work.

The day before yesterday the locals where driving along the Malecon honking horns and waving flags. A celebration of the soccer game victory. The Mexican's are very emotional as we have seen in the past. Can remember a few years back when Pope John Paul II died several people walked down the street with his picture and emotional distressed.

The local anchorage is full and not to many changes as most are just hanging out for the time. It is getting a bit cooler as we had to start using a blanket at night again.
Heard today that the "MS Explorer" a national Geographic's expedition  vessel hit the ice hard in the Arctic and had to be evacuated. News travels fast.

Nov 20

Woke up this morning to a awful noise. On investigation it seems to be a ceremony at the nearby naval base. Attempts to make music by the Naval band resulted in a dismal failure and we feel sorry for the dignitaries who have to endure this torture. (as well for ourselves)

Anyway, more boats coming in every day and every year this area gets more popular. That is the harbour. Not a empty spot to be found in the marinas, but lots of empty, gorgeous, clear water filled bays to explore just north from here. All new people coming in and the learning curve is steep so the result is lots of boats with problems. The last few days several groundings a day, as some don't bother to look at the chart. Lots of equipment failures as many boats are not been used for years and an offshore trip down the coast is the first real trip they do in years.

Well good for the locals who make a living off fixing boats.

Today it is Revolution Day and the Malacon is being cleared for a parade this morning.

Nov 11

Anchored overnight off Punta Coyote. Not a real  anchorage just a place along the coast to get some sleep.  Tried to be easy and did not set the snubber, but sure enough just as we are in our bunk the wind picks up and we start ripping on the anchor. So out and setting a heavy nylon snubber to take the load of the windlass and bow roller. It also reduce the ripping as it works as a shock absorber.

Awoke at 0600. Still a land breeze but laid down a bit later. Underway 0800 after break fast. Only short day today through the Lorenzo Channel. This year we have brand spanking new buoys marking the tips of the shoals. They are even the right color. In the past we have seen towers ( blown away in the Hurricane) nothing at all, one buoy only and buoys with the wrong color as the Mexican Navy ran out of paint? Things are improving every year.

Checked our way points just in case so we can get by without them. Still  fantastic weather. Blue skies and warm temp. Water temp ideal.

1030 Cleared the reefs and are coming slowly around to the South on the approach to La Paz.

1400 at anchor La Paz. Will spend the next few days cleaning the boat

Nov 10
Calm night gentle roll. Underway 0700 hrs. No wind calm seas. Making great progress under power. 1500 hrs Punta Arena de Ventana abeam. Ceralvo channel flat calm, tide with us. Slowed down for a quick dip as it is very warm today.

Nov 9
By morning more boats arrived and radio a buzz with request for being towed in as several boats had mechanical problems. Around 0930 Western Grace pulled up to the fuel dock to get some diesel and water. Anchored right off the breakwater after that and brought Harry to the Dinghy dock. Underway at 11:15 hrs.
Arrived 20:30 at Los Frailes. Anchor in 50'.

Nov 8
Awoke to a cruise ship dropping the anchor. Sounds like thunder. Overnight more boats  getting in, slowly filling anchorage around us. Dave left at 0900 hrs. Marcus & Cyndi depart at noon for last night in hotel and unlimited showers in San Jose Del Cabo.  . The anchorage is getting extremely crowded. Have boats anchoring within a boat length away from us. The most part of the anchorage to the east is closed as a movie crew is shooting " You don't mess with a soldier" Situation is getting dangerous and most new boaters have no clue and do not heed request to please allow some room. We had no choice than to pull up anchor and anchor in deeper water. This made a huge difference as most boats like to anchor in less than 50' of water.

Nov 7
to the Port Captain and Marcus & Cyndi off to Todos Santos. Dave and Harry onboard for most of the day. No cruise ships. Went shopping to Costco. The most expensive Costco in the world. Total different business model here. Bought almost nothing as the local stores are much more reasonable We are among a dozen vessels at anchor. In late afternoon first Baha boats arrive.

Nov 6

Thanks to Sailor Dave who skill fully wrote the captains log the last voyage.

Arrived in Cabo around 1500 hrs. To be greeted by 4 cruise ships. The shock from being at sea and on our own to civilization to the extreme. Jet skies, tenders, para sailors, Pangas kayaks etc. Too much too fast.

At 1800 the last cruise ships departed and life got more normal. Prices lower and everybody a lot less aggressive.  Laundry ashore. Tacos at Patty's. Enjoyed a good night of sleep.

Nov 7

Last night, we went into town, and dropped off laundry, went to dinner, and and went to the supermarket. I had the "Combination Mexican" at the restaurant, mainly because it had a chile rellano included. It came on a plate the side of a cookie sheet, and had all kinds of stuff on it. It was quite good, but I took a lot of grief for having such a huge plate.

Cyndi made fratatas for us this morning. Very tasty.

Harry and I went snorkeling out by the point today. We figured we would just wave down a water taxi, and get a lift out there from where we are anchored. Catching the eye of the water taxi drivers was a bit more of a challenge than we expected, but we finally got a glass bottom boat to take us out there for two dollars each. We got to an interesting stretch along the cliff wall of the point, where there were about eight glass bottom boats jockeying for position within feet of each other and the boat driver says, "Jump out." So we did. We managed to stay clear of the boats, and got to see some interesting fish, including a parrot fish, which I didn't even think lived here on the pacific side, since they eat coral, and there isn't really much of that around here. In fact, I had kind of chided Cyndi in Bahia Santa Maria for claiming to see a parrotfish there. I now stand corrected....

Anyway, we made our way along the point, and eventually ended up on the beach that spans both the inside and outside of the point, between the outermost sets of rocks. We walked the hundred yards over to the pacific side, and watched the impressive eight foot waves crashing right onto the shore. A man and a woman were running about at the edge of the water, in what seemed a somewhat precarious proximity (look at those big words! I've been hanging around Harry too long!) to the crashing waves. Turns out the woman lost one of her flip-flops in the water, and the good samaritan was trying to rescue it for her. He finally deemed it not worth the risk, and gave up. But it came enticingly close, so I kind of wandered out towards where it was washing in and out, and watched for it in the next wave. Harry was spotting me from behind, and it washed up just feet from him in the next wave or two, and he grabbed it.

While we waited for our ride back, the antics in the little cove's beach were quite amusing. The surf was pretty strong, even on the inside of the bay, so people were getting jostled pretty heavily in the surf. The real exciting part was watching the people come in and out on the sea kayaks, when they timed the surf poorly. We saw some real wipeouts.

Our boat finally returned, and we hopped on. Harry got covered with sand helping people onto the boat in the vigorous waves. As we got close to Western Grace, the driver slowed down, and we jumped overboard, probably to the surprise of the other passengers.

Marcus and Cyndi spent the day in Todos Santos, just north of Cabo. It's a smaller, less-touristy town that they really like. The rest of us headed in to pick up laundry, water, and find some dinner. As we arrived on the dinghy dock, we met the couple we had dinner with in Bahia Santa Maria. Turns out they were stranded, having taken a water taxi into town from their boat, and then couldn't find one to take them back. The others went on the laundry/water run, and I dinghied the castaways back to their boat, True North.

We had dinner, and returned to the dinghy dock, and found Marcus and Cyndi waiting for us there. We returned to the boat, for my last night aboard.

It was a good day in Cabo.

--Sailor Dave
 

Nov 6

We sailed away from the anchor in Bahia Santa Maria at first light Monday morning.

Winds were forecast to be light, for the rest of the week, all the way down to Cabo San Lucas. I was a little worried about being able to make it to Cabo in time for my flight--and yes, even though it has been an amazing three and a half weeks on Western Grace, I am READY to go home. John mentioned to the outfitter in Bahia Santa Maria, that he only had 20 gallons of fuel left. I got a little worried when I heard that, since at a gallon and a half per hour, that was only about 15 hours worth. Luckily, he wanted to leave plenty of time, and leave early, so I was somewhat relieved. I think Harry was a little disappointed that we didn't have some more time to explore nearby Mag Bay (Bahia Magdalena).

Since there were light winds forecasted for the trip, of course we caught good winds as we exited Bahia Santa Maria, and it just kept getting stronger through last night. In my wildest dreams, I hoped we would only have to do one night of watches, but I "knew" that wasn't realistic. Well, it was realistic, and it CERTAINLY was wild.

We ended up having winds in excess of 30 knots last night (apparent winds of 25, while we were going over 8 knots downwind). As we prepared for night watches, we were wing on wing, and the winds were building. We were seeing occasional winds (apparent) in the 20 knot range, and speeds up to 8.5 knots.

I was having visions of repeating an experience we had earlier in the day, where Harry accidentally turned off the autopilot while we were wing on wing, and we rounded up and accidentally jibed the main. The preventer was on, so it wasn't too bad, but we heeled way over, as the wind caught the main broadside, and stuff went flying through the boat, from port to starboard. As we were assessing the confusion, Marcus popped up out of his cabin, wondering why he had been awoken from his nap by doing a 720 in his bed. The only casualty seemed to be the glass coffee pot in the galley. Luckily, all the broken glass stayed in the sink.

So as our night watch approached, I was getting more and more paranoid about repeating something like that in the dark, while wing on wing, and not having the option to round up to the wind and have a moment to figure things out if something went wrong. I could just envision the wind building slowly, and me wondering if it was time to wake John, and waiting too long, and then being in serious trouble.

So, I talked John into bringing the headsail around to the same side as the main. Simple idea. Make things simple and safe, going into the night watches. Somehow, something went wrong, and we wrapped half the headsail around the headstay, and had a nice hourglass shape going. As we lost downwind speed, the apparent winds picked up, and it seemed we were going to tear the headsail apart before we got things straightened out. Finally, by furling (as far as we could) and unfurling the headsail, while changing courses, we were able to free the headsail, with no damage, and get onto a standard jibe.

It may have been a hassle, but as the winds built into the low 30's in the night, I was awfully glad we weren't wing on wing. It was a hairy night as it was! The swell was occasionally in the 10-12 foot range, and as we would crest a swell, and catch a gust, we would often round up about 20 degrees to the wind, and roll hard to leeward.

At some point during the night, I heard the generator start up. Then later the engine. It seemed like there was still lots of wind, so that was a little puzzling! Turns out, the inverter blew during the night, and the generator uses it to charge the batteries, so John had to start the main engine, where the alternators charge the batteries directly. He has a spare inverter he will install while anchored in Cabo.

We had another incredible dolphin encounter. This time they were the larger kind (bottlenose?). They swam at the bow, and seemed to actually be showing off for us. They would bounce out of the bow wave, surf in waves alongside the boat, then dart ahead and do jumps and twists in the air. It was the best dolphin show yet!

The show actually started out with a lone turtle floating by the boat. I managed to capture it on a brief video, since I was already running to the bow with my camera once the dolphins started jumping.

Later, as we approached the cabo, I saw a marlin jump from the water 3 times, about 200 yards in front of the boat. What a great grand finale to the trip.

Today, sailing toward Cabo in calming seas, and making 4.5 knots, wing on wing, again. What nice way to finish the sail trip.

It has been about 5 years since I was last in Cabo, when Karen and I went on our first cruise ship. We liked it a lot, and it seemed to be a happening place. There was lots of new construction going on. The fruits of that are now apparent. There is not only end to end hotels along the beach front of Cabo Bay, but there are condos and/or hotels all around the point on the Pacific side, and down to the point towards the east side.

As we approached Punta Cabo San Lucas, dozens of fishing boats, returning from their outings swarmed around us. At the point, sightseeing boats, snorkel boats speed boats, personal water craft, kayaks, Americas Cup boats, schooners, plus four cruise ships swarmed. It was total pandemonium! There were hundreds of boats around us as we sailed into the corner of the bay, near the marina entrance. As the point began to stifle the wind, and as dozens of boats were within a hundred yards of us, John gave in and had us first furl the head sail, and then drop the main, and he anchored using the engine.

I can't imagine what this place will look like in two or three days when 150 sailboats from the Baja Ha Ha arrive.

--Sailor Dave
 

Nov 4

The passage from Turtle Bay to Bahia Santa Maria, took a day, a night and a day.

The night watch went okay, but I made myself seasick, watching the movies we took of the dolphins on my laptop, during some heavy seas and big winds. I was a little woozy through my first night watch, and then didn't sleep very well, and then was woozy through my second night watch.

After that point, I was too tired to be woozy, and slept well.

The next day was pretty quiet. We had moderate winds, but fairly large swells that rocked the boat a lot. We started out with some chores around the boat. It was time to polish the stainless steel. It probably took us about an hour. Good fun.

The biggest excitement for the day ended up to be when I heard a horrible hissing sound emanating from Harry's and my cabin. I down the companionway from the salon to the cabin, and saw Harry fiddling with something on his lap. The hissing continued, and I assumed he must have some shaving cream with the push-top stuck in the down position. I thought, "What a mess that was going to be to clean up!"
But it kept going and going, and then I looked again, and there was something big and yellow on Harry's lap. His life jacket had inflated!

Turns out he was trying to examine the inflating mechanism and made an erroneous assumption about what it took to activate it.

It turned out to be a very educational experience for us all, as we got to look it over, evaluate the design, check out the mechanism, and see how it fit when inflated, etc. The we got to work on deflating it, repacking it, and rearming it with a new cartridge. It was all very educational. Harry remarked that he was going to charge $5.00 for looking at it in order to cover the $30 cost of the rearming kit.

Nov 1

Pelicans were diving from thirty feet in the air, straight into the water, all night long. There were these interesting swimming crabs, eating some little red critters that were skittering around near the surface, all night long. Lots of fish were jumping, presumably eating the little red things, as well.

Someone, who's name I won't mention, but her initials are Cyndi, suggested we capture one of the swimming crabs, to figure out what they were. Marcus, who's name I will also have the good taste not to mention, promptly cast one of the white buckets into the water, and let the bitter end of the line slip thru his hand. Harry got the fish gaff out of the locker, and nearly fell off the transom, into the water, while completely sinking the bucket, and its line. Oh well. We decided to buy a new bucket in town.

Woke up with 114 boats anchored around us, but we were still near the eastern edge. Most anchored more to the SW, toward the entrance to the bay.

The four of us (minus John and Joanne--I'm getting suspicious of their motives to shoo us off the boat, so often, wink, wink) headed out in the dinghy for a joy ride around the fleet. Marcus and Cyndi wanted to check out all the "classic" looking boats, I wanted to check out all the catamarans, and Harry was just hoping that we would get back to Western Grace, before he got too wet from my "driving". It took longer to get back than anyone expected, because Marcus found a reason to chat for a few minutes with anyone who made the mistake of waving back to us as we passed by.

Later, we all went into town, and exchanged some five gallon empty water bottles (and $1.30) for full ones. Then we checked some local Mercado's for verduras (vegetables). John and Joanne headed back to Western Grace, while the rest of us headed to La Palapa, for fish tacos. It was my first time, and I have to admit, that they were better than I expected, and actually quite good. Harry insisted that it would be his pleasure to pick up the tab. Thanks, Harry!

We then went on quite an adventure, in search of some fresh veggies. We talked to the Gringo in the Tackle shop, and got some good equipment, as well as a map from his wife, with some recommendations on good stores for finding veggies. We carefully planned out a track to hit the best options. Cyndi foolishly started heading up the right road, but Marcus and I managed to convince her she was going the wrong way... After some serious detouring, we eventually found some veggies that weren't in too bad of shape. We were so focused on veggies, we walked right past the tent market with the buckets.

Later, on our way back down to the pier, we encountered a grocery store with even better veggies, and bought a few more. They didn't have buckets, but a nice woman offered us a ride back to where they sold them (and back to the beach, without accepting payment). Of course it was the place we had passed earlier in the day, while we were off track. They wouldn't sell us either of their sturdy plastic buckets, which they were utilizing, but they had some less-sturdy, smaller buckets. We bought the largest one they had, plus a slightly smaller one. Maybe the small one will be better for hauling up buckets of seawater from alongside the boat. Those 5 gallon buckets of seawater can be pretty heavy! It will be interesting to see if it can hold up to boat duty.

We left Turtle Bay by sailing away from the anchor, and through the southeastern part of the fleet. The wind was very light and shifty, through the bay, but picked up smartly at the entrance. We have been roaring south since.

A few hours out of the bay, we had another awesome dolphin encounter, where they swam in the bow wake for about 15 minutes. They were having a great  time, swimming within inches, it seemed from the hull. They especially seemed to enjoy jumping out of the water at the bow wake as it interacted with the ocean swell.

--Sailor Dave